Disc-jockeys are often used at discotheques and other places of music/dance entertainment. Disc-jockeys (DJ) commonly use two audio tracks to eliminate the gaps between songs in order to increase the flow of music. More advanced control involves manipulating the playback speed of the audio tracks so that the transition between them can be seen as seamless, this is called beat mixing. On top of this a disc-jockey can use a whole variety of effects to manipulate the playback in order to increase the experience for the crowd. For example, the disc-jockey can manipulate the frequencies, add audio effects, manipulate the volume, and much more.
The DJ systems available today are expensive and bulky systems that very few people can afford. They normally consists of two audio playing devices capable of manipulating the playback speed, such as a DJ compact disc players or turntables; an audio mixer capable of mixing the output from the audio playing devices together; a pair of head phones, a power amplifier to amplify the output from the audio mixer; and a pair of loudspeakers. There is today also a wide range of computer programs that allow a user to mix digitally stored audio. What differentiates the computer programs from the traditional system is that the manipulation of the playback is done on the computer without any physical connection between the DJ and the tracks. However, in order to give the DJ physical control over the digitally stored audio, consoles with all the controls and inputs a DJ needs has been developed.
The basic control functions that are needed for DJ functionality include the following:
Crossfade: gradually changing from one channel to another channel by increasing the volume of one channel in at the same time as fading the other one out.
Pitch: changing the speed at which a track is played to adapt the speed of two tracks to each other.
Bend: temporarily changing the speed at which a track is played, to synchronize the beat of two tracks with each other to make a seamless transition between them.
Pause/play: to start and stop the playback of a channel.
Cue: stop playback and set the playback position to the cue point; a user set position in the track.
Traditional DJ equipment has two sets of all the application specific controls, including a pause/play and cue button, a bend control and a playback speed control for each channel and a cross fader for each audio output, that is, one for the lineout and one for the headphones.
Despite the recent advances of electronic components, the disc-jockey systems are still bulky and expensive to obtain. It is an object of the present invention to provide a disc-jockey system that is small and inexpensive while providing the same or better performance compared to traditional disc-jockey systems.